


A Cinderella Story

by Snow



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Goat, M/M, Post-Canon, Seduction, possibly crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-19
Updated: 2010-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 09:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garak uses a goat to seduce Bashir.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cinderella Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gray Shadows (the_afterlight)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_afterlight/gifts).



> Inspired by a typo in a different story, where I typed 'Garak retrieved his goat' instead of coat, and then I thought about it too much.
> 
> It's quite possible the style of this story is more influenced by Waiting for Godot than is healthy.

Garak frowned at his goat.

"She's limping. I think she stepped on a cactus," Garak said in lieu of a greeting when Bashir arrived.

Bashir raised his eyebrow at the snowy mountain, before walking over to the goat and bending over to coax her to lift her leg.

"If we were on Cardassia it would have been a cactus," Garak said in response to the silent accusation.

Bashir shrugged, and put that leg down to look at another one. "You didn't have to accept the goat," Bashir replied, straightening again.  "I'm sure it was mostly a symbolic gift. But I rather suspect you knew that, just as I rather suspect you know your goat is absolutely fine. Which begs the question of why you asked me to come here, why you've been here a week, and why you were even on New Adelaide to begin with."

"I had business here," Garak said.

"Or business not being on Cardassia?" Bashir suggested.

"You did get my last communication from there then," Garak said, and it sounded like an accusation.

"I get all your communications," Bashir said. "But you tell me not to respond to half of them, because your mail isn't secure."

Garak tutted. "I expect if you'd put your mind to it you could have found a way."

Bashir sighed. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

"Yes," Garak said. "You are, on nothing more than my say-so that I had a goat and you were the only person I could think to ask to help."

"I thought it might be code," Bashir said.

"In which case the first thing I would have changed was the name of the planet."

Bashir shrugged.

"Which means, dear doctor, that you came without a real reason, just because I asked."

"You had to know I would."

Garak shrugged.

Bashir let out a choked off laugh. "What are you going to do about the goat?" he asked.

"I could eat it," Garak said.

Bashir looked momentarily devastated. "You could give it back," he suggested.

"I couldn't," Garak said. "It was a gift."

"What did you even do that someone gave you a goat?" Bashir asked.

Garak smiled. "It's a long story," he said.

"I can't think of anything to do on this planet that would be more interesting than listening."

"You don't exactly flatter me," Garak said, but he looked pleased nonetheless. "I came here, like you guessed, because I needed to not be on Cardassia at the moment. Nothing serious, but it's better if I can't be considered accountable for what happens."

"Of course," Bashir said.

"So I came here. Fare was cheap: it's the harvest season so a number of ships are forced to come in empty."

"You could have visited me," Bashir said, in a tone that implied he was trying to feel for the cracks in Garak's story.

He wouldn't find them. Not yet. Not until Garak wanted him to, and then they would be obvious. "Not if I wanted to be removed enough from Cardassian politics. Much easier to come to New Adelaide, and to give you the option to join me."

Bashir inclined his head, granting the point.

"So, for the previously established reasons, I found myself on New Adelaide. It's really quite a nice place, as I'm sure you noticed on your trip out. The local town had quite a number of local fabrics, so I bought some of the more appealing ones. No specific plan, but it had been a while since I had had a chance to use that part of my brain. Now it turns out that the local magistrate was about to throw a ball for her daughter, and the shopkeeper, a very lovely young lady, had been planning to use the fabrics I had just bought to make her dress. But she needed the money more than she needed to go to the ball. I happened to linger around the store after buying the fabrics and overheard the shopkeeper telling one of her friends what had happened. Obviously I felt very bad for the situation, but she'd said herself she needed the money more. On top of that, she was such a lovely young lady, and it would be a tragedy to see her in a dress that didn't do her beauty justice. A tragedy on about the same scale as the Starfleet Uniform you always wear, in fact."

"So you made her a dress, she went to the ball and the–magistrate's daughter, was it?–fell in love with her, they got married and lived happily ever after," Bashir said dryly.

"Hardly," Garak said. "It's only been a couple of days, after all. But I have high hopes."

"You expect me to believe you're like the mice from Cinderella," Bashir said.

"Cinderella?" Garak asked.

"It's a fairytale," Bashir said.

"Is it?" Garak asked. "Interesting. I'd never heard of it. What's the matter, dear doctor? You don't believe me."

Bashir snorted. "I find it much more likely that, for some reason that would only make sense in your head, you went out and bought a goat yourself."

"I can make the reason make sense to you," Garak said, and that was as good a confession as any.

"Mmm hmm?" Bashir murmured.

"It was part of my plan to seduce you," Garak said.

Bashir laughed. He didn't sound convinced: he sounded afraid. "Most people buy flowers," he said. "They tend to have a better success rate than goats."

"I don't know," Garak said. "I think this worked just fine."

When he moved to kiss Bashir, Bashir didn't object, didn't remotely feel like objecting, so he supposed Garak had a point.

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate all kinds of comments, though I would (obviously) prefer if any criticism was constructive. :)


End file.
